Top 10 best books of 2010

In a year in which everyone from Jonathan Franzen to Justin Bieber published a book, it was easy to overload our shelves.

But an embarrassment of reading riches doesn’t always lead to bookworm bliss (we’re looking at you, Jodi Picoult). Express staffers skimmed the fat of the bloated literary world to identify 10 of the year’s best reads.

“Union Atlantic” – by Adam Haslett ($26, Nan A. Talese)
This fictional account of the financial crisis calls back to Fitzgerald in its elegance, without drowning in banking jargon.

“How to Read the Air” – by Dinaw Mengestu ($26, Riverhead Hardcover)
Mengestu’s second novel demolishes the American dream with characters who are incredibly relatable, yet only sometimes reliable.

“How Did You Get This Number” – by Sloane Crosley ($26, Riverhead Hardcover)
Crosley’s second book of essays explains what’s it’s like to be a 20-something without whining, oversharing or using the phrase “I couldn’t help but wonder.”

“Half Empty” – by David Rakoff ($25, Doubleday)
Rakoff is no rose-colored glasses kind of a writer, and in a suitable follow-up to “Fraud” and “Don’t Get Too Comfortable,” he reminds us that a healthy dose of realistic pessimism is often the best medicine.

“Medium Raw” – by Anthony Bourdain ($26, Riverhead Hardcover)
Bourdain shows a softer side in his follow-up to “Kitchen Confidential,” giving us another glimpse at what makes the globe-trotting chef tick.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” – by Rebecca Skloot ($26, Crown)
Immortality because a sample of your tumor, taken by doctors without asking before you died, produced medical science’s most popular cell line isn’t as romantic as being turned into a vampire, but it’s sure interesting.

“The Emperor of All Maladies” – by Siddhartha Mukherjee ($30, Scribner)
Cancer is hard to stop, multiplies fast and eats people. It’s basically a zombie, but it actually exists. Thus, this history of attempts to eradicate the scourge of humanity is pants-off scary.

“The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet” – by David Mitchell ($26, Random House)
Other than an evildoer who eats – let’s just say it’s an unusual choice – and an entire chapter that rhymes, this is a totally normal masterpiece of contemporary literature.

Worst Book of 2010

“An Amish Christmas” – by Cynthia Keller ($16, Ballantine)
A selfish yuppie family goes broke, wrecks its car and is taken in by everyone’s favorite blank slate for authors to project saintly qualities onto.